Memory Lane

I was driving back from Connecticut today and took a very inefficient route. By "inefficient" I mean that instead of going from Connecticut to home, I went Connecticut... through the Bronx, along the West side of Manhattan, through Harlem, THEN into Queens. Oh, and did I mention that this was all between the times of 11:30-12:00 pm?

As I was driving, both through the Bronx and Harlem, I thought to myself, "This is not somewhere that a single white female should be driving in the middle of the night." But, the funny thing about that is I have spent extensive amounts of time in each of these places. I worked near the area in the Bronx where I was driving. In Harlem, I earned my masters. My second apartment in New York was at the edge of Harlem, so I was constantly on the buses running along 125th St. So, essentially, during my first years in New York, school, work, and home were all in these "scary" areas. Funny though... when I was regularly in these areas, not knowing enough to be afraid, I never had a single problem. I never even felt afraid. But now that I'm not regularly there, to see the reality of what goes on there and some of the beautiful moments shared among real people, I'm afraid. But of what? Those people who used to be my neighbors, coworkers and students? Or just of unknown and different? That is probably it.

How unfortunate.